1. Field
One or more exemplary embodiments relate to social community management apparatuses and methods, and more particularly to location-based social community management apparatuses and methods based on user interest information.
2. Description of the Related Art
Social network applications are now ubiquitous. Social network applications connect users having different demographics to one another. In addition, social network applications have the common function of connecting users belonging to different cultures to one another. That is, social network applications enable communications between users anytime anywhere beyond the constraints of time and space.
In most cases, these user connections may be explicitly made. For example, when a user A connects to a user B, the user A initiates communication for connecting to the user B. Such a connection may be based on profile information that the users provide for others to see.
Most existing social network applications are static in nature. The term “static” may mean that users are allowed to share information with other users who are present in the social network application. For example, if a global event is going on but a user does not update his/her profile information, the fact that the user is interested in the global event may be missed.
In addition, the expression “social network applications are static in nature” may mean a static nature of a network topology. Therefore, reorganization of a once-established network is minimized and there is a limitation in coping with the expansion and change of the network.
Another aspect of the social network applications is the focus on the user without regard to the context in which the user is present. The term “context” may mean an environment to which the user belongs. Since the user is mobile, the context may vary with time. Hence, the varying context may be implicitly captured.
Location-based social network applications may solve these problems. However, people have some inhibition to communicate with strangers. Moreover, users would not like to reveal themselves to strangers in their first communication.